Chuwi Hi10 Pro Tablet PC Review (Windows 10/Android 5.1 Dual Boot)

The Chuwi Hi10 Pro is a 2-in-1 device that has sparked great interest in the changes that the Chinese company has introduced in terms of its design and finish, the improvement of its specifications and its good price.

At first sight, the Chuwi Hi10 Pro seems like a very attractive option that has everything to compete effortlessly against other devices on a very complex market, but does it really live up to the expectations that it created?

In this article, we are going to review this device thoroughly to give you the whole picture of the Chuwi HI10 Pro. This way, you will know clearly what it can and cannot do, but especially if it is worth its price.

Without any further ado, let’s get on with it. We hope you like it and we invite you to write any doubts in the comments section.

Design and finish

I have had in my hands many 2-in-1 devices made by Chinese manufacturers and I must say that the Chuwi Hi10 Pro turned out to be a nice surprise. The Chinese company has gotten rid of the plastic and the combinations with metal frames to go for an entire aluminum build.

This choice hits the mark since it gives the device a quality finish noticeable from the beginning and that is characteristic on much more expensive models.

Its design is really simple and sober, which is something that I personally like, and at the same time it is both elegant and attractive. The back and the frames have a metallic gray color and we can find the usual Windows logo on the front.

Talking about the keyboard, Chuwi has done a good job again as the keyboard’s surface is made of aluminum and the keys feel great when you touch them.

I have not had any problems while using it and its response has generally been precise. However, the keyboard’s back is made of plastic, which is, in our opinion, something that has allowed the company to make it lighter and keep costs low.

The keyboard is connected to the tablet using a very reliable and simple magnetic system. We just have to bring the keyboard closer to the dock and it will be so firmly fixed to the device that we will be able to take it by the display and move it without fear.

The built-in hinge is also great since it is solid, stays totally stable and allows us to get a comfortable inclination angle for working in different positions.

The tablet weights 560 g and the keyboard adds another 545 g, which adds up to almost 1.1 kg when used together.

General specifications

The Chuwi Hi10 Pro is a small device where mobility and battery life prevail over performance. However, the Chinese brand has been careful with the specifications in order to provide a great performance in almost every possible situation.

We will go over the device’s general specifications before telling you about our experience:

A 10.1-inch touch display with an IPS panel and a 1,920 x 1,200 pixels resolution.

An Intel Atom x5-Z8350 SoC with a quad-core CPU clocked at 1.44 GHz and 1.92 GHz in normal and turbo mode, respectively. It has 2 MB of L2 cache and a 2-watt TDP.

A 64 GB eMMC storage capacity that can be expanded by using microSD cards and external USB drives.

Integrated WiFi-N.

2 MP front and rear cameras.

A 6,500 mAh battery.

Stereo speakers.

USB-C (for charging), micro USB and micro HDMI connectors, and a 3.5 mm jack. Two USB Type-A are featured on the keyboard.

Windows 10 64-bits edition/Android 5.1 dual boot. We can change to either one of them at any moment without turning off the device.

As we can see, this is a very balanced device, which is something that we noticed while testing it.

The display offers a great quality even outdoors and it does not flicker nor loses brightness in the corners, which is a common issue that I was able to discover in similar devices made by other Chinese manufacturers.

Performance and user experience

Since we have two OS, we are going to compare the device’s performance running each one of them. Before doing this, it is important for you to know that the tablet’s 64 GB storage capacity is shared between Windows 10 and Android 5.1.

The former gets a little over 40 GB (around 27 GB are available for us to use) while the latter gets a small share of the memory (giving us around 10 GB to use).

Bearing this in mind, I recommend you using a good-quality microSD card (the tablet supports up to 128 GB) since it will greatly improve the device’s performance while providing you with enough space to work and enjoy your multimedia content with ease.

Performance is usually great in Windows 10 when reproducing multimedia content at 1080p, web browsing and working with Microsoft Office suite. Everything works well and I was able to edit content smoothly while having five tabs open, one of them had YouTube playing music.

I noticed a slight delay occasionally and mostly when changing tabs or opening apps, although I think it was not the processor or the RAM’s fault but the eMMC unit’s fault since its speed is much lower (136 MB/s sequential read and 40 MB/s sequential write speeds) than the one achieved by an SSD unit.

Despite this, my conclusion is still positive: its performance is good even when multitasking, thus it is completely possible to use it to work, reproduce multimedia content and play games.

I have definitely played some games on it and it has worked seamlessly, although you have to keep in mind that it is not a gaming device so you will only be able to run relatively old games (Half Life 2, Resident Evil 4 and DOOM 3 run smoothly) and little-demanding games (League of Legends also runs well if we reduce the resolution and the graphics quality).

The user experience while working on Android was also very good, with absolute smoothness in transitions and no problems when running demanding games such as Dead Trigger 2 and Asphalt Xtreme.

We finish this section by talking about battery life. I wanted to personally test the device in real usage by web browsing and playing music and the same time, giving me a result of a little over five and a half hours of battery life.

It certainly is not enough for an entire day’s work, but you must bear in mind that the Chuwi Hi10 Pro is not a device meant to be used continuously for many hours since its size means it is not as comfortable as a when using 15-inch laptop.

Conclusions

The Chuwi Hi10 Pro is a well-built device both on the inside and out. Its metal finish exudes quality from the very beginning, its hardware is good since it can run old games and current, though not demanding, ones and the battery life is acceptable.

At the same time, the keyboard has a good response, feels great, is easy to dock and undock, and improves the tablet’s connectivity options thanks to its two USB Type-A ports.

It can be bought separately since it is not included in the Chuwi Hi10 Pro’s packaging, but I personally recommend you to get it because I believe that it is basically a must-have to take full advantage of the device.

We can also get a stylus pen with 1,024 levels of pressure control to write on the screen. It does its job and offers a decent experience, but it is dispensable and it certainly is not on par with professional input devices.

Unfortunately, not everything is perfect. The quality of it two cameras is so low that having them on the device feels almost unnecessary and the sound provided by the speakers is barely acceptable. Thankfully, the issue with the speakers can be compensated by using good headphones.